{"id":112403,"date":"2021-03-06T16:33:29","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T23:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=112403"},"modified":"2021-03-06T16:33:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T23:33:29","slug":"the-general-election-of-1956-part-4b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/03\/06\/the-general-election-of-1956-part-4b\/","title":{"rendered":"THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1956 Part 4B"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Philip took a\ndeep interest in paddy production and studied it from all angles. He complained repeatedly about the paucity of statistics on\npaddy cultivation. There was no information on the size of holdings, yield,\nownership and so on. Thanks to Philip, in 1962, Department of Census and\nStatistics started an agricultural census. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nwas the problem of low paddy yields. The\nbasic principles of land use in ancient Ceylon were sound and in accordance\nwith modern principles of land utilization, said Philip, quoting Ernest\nAbeyratne. Therefore all what was needed now was the introduction of modern\ntechniques adapted to the Dry Zone environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsoil conditions and fertilizer needed In the Dry Zone, was known from ancient\ntimes, said Philip. But knowledge of soil conditions and fertilizer needs for\npaddy production in the Wet Zone was lacking. \nPhilip found that experimental plots and private individual farms in the\nWet Zone had shown good yields where soil had been analyzed and correct\nfertilizer used. \u2018They have obtained as high as 60 to 110 bushels per acres.\u2019 In Kegalle, the Food Production Department\nhad managed to increase yields by providing fertilizer, credit, high yielding\nseeds and adopting transplanting instead of the traditional   method of sowing. Philip had drawn attention to government\u2019s\nneglect of paddy cultivation in the wet zone, with focus on Dry Zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\nencouraged agricultural research. He wanted the research scientists in the\nDepartment of Agriculture and elsewhere to concentrate on research and not\nadministration. He appointed administration officers for the 24 districts and\nrelived the scientific officers of this work. Technical\nofficers should be left to do technical work, not promoted to do administrative\nwork, such as petitions, he said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Philip wanted Gannoruwa to do research on\nrice.  He set up other research units.\nRahangala for potato and citrus,   \nHambantota for cotton, sugar in Kantalai,   and paddy at Batalegoda. Under\nhim, the Department of Agriculture started a soil survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\nsaid that J.R. Jayawardene had in 1953 and 1954 disposed of very valuable state\nfarms.  If JR had waited for a year or\ntwo most of these farms would have paid. Some of these farms were for research\nnot to make a profit, observed Philip.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\ncontested the existing notion that it was cheaper to import rice than produce\nit.  He said\nthat it was not necessary to open up more and more land for paddy cultivation.\nIt was better to increase production in the existing paddy fields in\npurana villages and colonization schemes. He strongly\nurged investment in already asweddumised land through higher use of fertilizer,\nhigh yielding seed, use of mechanization for ploughing and sowing. This would\ngive greater returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philip\nGunawardena was very critical of the colonization schemes of D.S\nSenanayake.  The\nindependent peasant small holder as dreamt by DS Senanayake   does not exist said Philip. The majority of\nthe owner cultivators  held less than one\nacre and that  one acre could not provide\na living for a family. Many small holders were wage laborers as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In a recent Patha Dumbara survey 45 % neither\nowned paddy nor had anything to do with paddy production. The remaining 55 %\nalso did not depend wholly on paddy cultivation.  A pauperized peasantry has been created. .\nThis is the picture, of the much idolized ‘peasant proprietor,’ said Philip in\n1957.  Many had\nbecome tenant farmers in these schemes.  There was indebtedness and wage laborers   confirmed others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasing\nthe peasant ownership of small lots of paddy would not solve anything, said\nPhilip. Paddy cannot be grown in small un-economic units. You\ncannot offer land divided up into five acres and three acres, as high land and\nlow land  and ask the farmer to cultivate,\nbecause he cannot get a good return. Also the fertility of the land varies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not\npossible to apply modern techniques of farming to small holdings of 5 or 3 or 2\nacre farms either.  You need large units.   The land had to be worked in large units to\nbe productive.  What\nwas needed was collective farming, not small scale units. Philip thought the\nfuture lay in some sort of cooperative endeavor.  (Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Philip took a deep interest in paddy production and studied it from all angles. He complained repeatedly about the paucity of statistics on paddy cultivation. There was no information on the size of holdings, yield, ownership and so on. Thanks to Philip, in 1962, Department of Census and Statistics started an agricultural census. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}